


We Don't Talk About What Happened At Thanksgiving

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Learning Normal, Finding Home [5]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-21
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-02 07:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1053921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four years after Marina turned three, she's in first grade and impossible to say no to.<br/>Which is how Nico ends up going to her school's Bring Your Parent To School Day, of course. Gossipy first grade moms be damned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Don't Talk About What Happened At Thanksgiving

First grade was an exciting time for Marina Jackson.

She came home every day babbling about what they’d done in class or showing off the projects she’d made.

This time, the topic of the day was next week’s Bring Your Parent to School Day, which had been explained to Nico as “sort of like Bring Your Child to Work Day” (which prompted an explanation of what Bring Your Child to Work Day was, and that took about twenty minutes).

“And I’m really e’cited!” Marina finished.

“That’s more than I could ever say about school,” muttered Percy.

Annabeth whacked his shoulder. “Don’t plant that in her head! She’s only seven!”

“You do realise that she already knows about all of my disasters, right?” Percy replied, laughing. “And that you stopped going to school at seven? And that Nico pretty much never went at all? We’re hardly a shining example of academic perseverance.”

Marina giggled.

“ _See_?” said Annabeth. “See what you’re doing? We don’t  _want_  her following in our footsteps!”

“Rina, you’re not going to follow in your terrible parents’ terrible academic footsteps, are you?” Nico asked seriously between mouthfuls of pancakes.

Marina giggled some more. “No, sir!”

“See, Annie? She’ll be  _fine_ ,” Nico said, suppressing a grin.

“Anyways,” said Marina, “Nico, would you come on tuesday? For the thing?”

Nico’s eyes went wide and he looked over at Annabeth, who just smiled at him over Bobby’s head. “Oh, Rina-Bean, I don’t know -”

“C’mon,  _pleeeeeease_ ,” Marina pleaded. “Mommy went last year, and Daddy’s not allowed after the thing with the paint at the Thanksgiving lunch. But  _you’ve_ neverbeen to one!  _And_  you’re allowed in the classroom!”

“It’s a parents day, though,” Nico pointed out.

“And?” Marina replied, frowning.

“I’m not your parent?” Nico tried.

“Hate to break it to you, Nic, but you kind of are,” replied Percy.

“When did  _that_  happen?”

“Oh, ages ago,” Annabeth said. “We just didn’t bother telling you.”

“You should go. It’ll be fun,” Percy continued.

“I’ll email the teacher as soon as we finish dinner so she knows to expect you instead of me,” Annabeth added. “No protests. Mari’s got a point, you’ve never gone to a parent day. That is an experience you should not deprive yourself of.”

Nico wanted to argue, mostly because of the amused looks that Percy and Annabeth were giving him, but Marina was smiling hopefully at him and he just couldn’t say no.

“Oh, fine,” he said finally. “I’ll go.”

“Woohoo!”

–

The morning of Bring Your Parent to School Day, Annabeth pulled Nico aside.

“There’s something you should know,” she said.

“About the class?” asked Nico, frowning.

“No, about the other parents,” replied Annabeth. “At Lanie’s birthday party a few weeks ago, I was talking to some of the moms, and it turns out that most of them are convinced that either I or Percy is cheating on the other with you. Possibly both. So, ah, don’t be surprised if somebody asks.”

“ _Annabeth!”_  Nico exclaimed, stunned. “What am I supposed to  _say_?”

“Uh,  _no_ , since that’s the truth?” Annabeth said like it was the dumbest question in the world.

(To be fair, though, that’s sort of her go-to tone.)

“ _Annie!”_

She leaned over and kissed Nico on the cheek. “Have fun at school. Don’t cause too much trouble, okay?”

And with that, she left him standing alone in the living room, trying to formulate a good answer in his head. That was where Marina found him.

“C’mon, Nico, s’time to go!” she said, tugging on his shirt.

“Yeah, going,” replied Nico, letting her pull him out the front door. He grabbed Bobby in the hall as they passed.

They walked together to the school and Marina talked the whole way about her classmates (many of whom Nico had met at her birthday party earlier this year, but he knew better than to bring that up) and her classroom and her teacher, and before long they were sitting in her classroom listening to different students introduce their parents.

It was about then that Nico realised that he had no idea what Marina was going to say. He tried to ask, but she dutifully shushed him.

“ _Shh, Mama said be good, so don’t talk in class.”_

And then it was her turn to stand up and talk to the class.

“This is Nico,” she announced. “He does money work at the aquarium where my other daddy works.”

Nico glanced around and saw that there were a few parents giving him curious looks, some more disapproving than others. Nobody actually  _said_  anything until the kids were running around on the playground after lunch.

“ _So_ ,” said Nadia, the mother of one of Marina’s friends, “you aren’t Percy.”

“Really? I’d never noticed,” Nico replied, rolling his eyes.

“I only mean – what’s your relationship to Marina, really?” she asked quickly, like she wanted to get the asking over with.

If Nico had to guess, she’d drawn the short straw and been sent over by the other moms.

“It’s not really any of your business,” Nico pointed out.

“Sorry, I’m just curious. We’ve all seen you around at parties and such since pre-K,” said Nadia. “But nobody really knows what to make of you, you know? And then Marina brings you in and -”

“Look, Nadia, Rina brought me in today because Percy can’t come back and Annabeth was busy. I’ve been part of her life forever, and she’s more or less adopted me. Neither Percy nor Annabeth is cheating on the other, so just – just stop, alright? There’s no gossip here,” Nico explained.

Nadia looked appropriately embarrassed at being caught. “Sorry.”

“Yeah,” said Nico.

“Nico! NicoNicoNicoNicoNico!” Marina called.

“Yeah, babe?” Nico replied, snapping in an instant from annoyed peer to concerned parent. “Something wrong?”

“Noooo,” said Marina, skipping over to him. “But the preschoolers are out, d’ya wanna say hi to Bobby before we go in for art class?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” answered Nico. “See you around, Nadia.”

He let Marina drag him over to the lined up preschoolers and didn’t protest when her little brother ran forward and flung his arms around Nico’s middle.

When the day was over, Nico and Marina collected Bobby from his classroom and made their way home. Marina excitedly recounted the day to Annabeth while Nico tried to explain away the paint all over his arms to Percy.

(He failed pretty spectacularly at that. Percy just laughed and pulled him over to the sink to scrub it all off. Or rather, to let the water scrub the paint off while he laughed some more.)

That night, after stories were read and night lights were on, Percy and Nico tucked in the kids.

(It was Annabeth’s night off.)

“Niiiico?” Marina said.

“Yeah, Rina-Bean?”

“Thanks for coming to school with me today.”

Nico leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Any time, kid.”

In the hall, Percy stopped Nico. “Seriously, though, Nico, thanks. After what happened at Thanksgiving I don’t think I can show my face at a school event until she graduates.”

Nico chuckled. “It was no problem, Perce. And anyway, apparently I’m a parent and didn’t know it. I was bound to get roped into something like this eventually.”

Annabeth stuck her head into the hall from the stairway. “Boys, come downstairs. It’s a school night, you don’t get to talk right outside the kids’ door. You’ll keep them up.”

“ _Yes_ , Annie,” Percy and Nico replied before glancing at each other and bursting into giggles.

(They stopped giggling fairly abruptly when Annabeth purposefully crossed the hall and grabbed both of them by the back of their shirts to pull them back downstairs with her. From that point it was mostly hushed protests and “ _Annie_ , leggo!”s. Very mature of all of them. On the upside, she’d put the Nightmare Before Christmas into the player, so they piled onto the couch and ignored Percy’s occasional comments about how much better Finding Nemo is.)


End file.
